For many years, parents have struggled with finding a workable way to control the amount of time their children spend in front of the television set. Reduced television viewing in the household is known by child development experts and parents alike to promote family togetherness, increase reading time, increase the appreciation of reading and improve scholastic grades, among other benefits.
Early attempts in controlling television viewing time, dating back to the advent of home television, include various attempts at temporarily disabling televisions. Also used have been parental directives, which, of course, were difficult to enforce during parental absences.
Beier U.S. Pat. No. 4,348,696 and Smith et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,046,157 disclose television viewing control devices permitting parental control over television viewing time of a plurality of children. However, these devices appear to have numerous drawbacks and have not gained commercial acceptance.
One primary disadvantage of known television viewing control devices is that they do not contain an information loop with the television that informs the device whether the television is in an on or off condition. Thus, when a child decides to stop watching television and he simply turns off the television--without "signing off" at the control device--his account will continue to be debited by the control device. This results in a lack of integrity in the overall operation of the system because a child is likely to occasionally, if not frequently, simply turn the television off without regard to the control device. Thus, there is a need for a more user friendly and practical television control device that prevents a child who simply turns off the television from losing his entire allotment or allowance of viewing time. This and other advantages flow from such a current sensing system.
Another drawback of prior television viewing control devices is that their use as teaching tools is not optimized. For example, the prior art devices automatically replenish the child's time allowance at the end of each daily or weekly viewing period to a predetermined level, for example, two hours. Thus, the child has no incentive to "save up" time from one viewing period to the next and thereby learn the valuable lessons associated with saving.
Another disadvantage of known television control devices is that they do not address the reality that many households have multiple televisions. In such households, a television control device connected to only one television does nothing to prevent a child from exceeding his viewing allowance by simply tuning in to a different television. Likewise, providing multiple television control devices (one per television) is also unsatisfactory since this leads to maintaining accounts on several control units or restricting television viewers to specific sets. Thus, there is a need for a system that permits a multiple television household, where desired, to control a child's total viewing through a single time allowance while giving the child access to all televisions in the house.